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El Salvador joins the US, China, the UK, Ukraine and Bhutan as the only countries with Bitcoin holdings currently above 6,000 BTC.
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El Salvador has become the sixth country to currently hold more than 6,000 Bitcoin (BTC), further solidifying the cryptocurrency’s status as a treasury asset for President Nayib Bukele’s country.
El Salvador acquired another 1 Bitcoin (BTC) on Dec. 29, pushing the country’s holdings to 6000.77 Bitcoin, currently worth $569.3 million, according to The National Bitcoin Office of El Salvador’s portfolio tracker.
The latest buy puts El Salvador up 108.02% on its Bitcoin investment, having purchased the 6,000.77 Bitcoin at an average purchase price of $45,450, according to the Nayib Bukele portfolio tracker.
The Bukele-led government purchased its first 200 Bitcoin on Sept. 6, 2021 — around the time El Salvador became the world’s first country to make Bitcoin legal tender.
El Salvador total Bitcoin holdings. Source: El Salvador Bitcoin Office
El Salvador holds the sixth most Bitcoin among nation-states, trailing only the United States, China, the United Kingdom, Ukraine and Bhutan, BitBo’s Bitcoin Treasuries data shows.
While El Salvador typically buys one Bitcoin per day, it bought $1 million worth one day after striking a $1.4 billion deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and again Dec. 22, despite the IMF requesting it row back some of its Bitcoin activity.
El Salvador’s National Bitcoin Office Director Stacy Herbert said the Central American country may continue to buy Bitcoin at an “accelerated pace” in a Dec. 19 X post.
A spokesperson from the Bitcoin Office further told Cointelegraph that El Salvador wouldn’t sell its Bitcoin holdings, adding that “Bitcoin continues to be our main strategy.”
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However, El Salvador’s Chivo wallet “will be sold or wound down,” said Herbert, who expects private-sector Bitcoin wallets to “continue serving El Salvador.”
The IMF still needs to approve the El Salvador deal, which would mark the end of four years of negotiations strained by Bukele’s Bitcoin policies, which the IMF said put the country at risk.
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This article first appeared at Cointelegraph.com News
